adminHarare Bureau
THE body of an unidentified man found in a cargo plane which landed at the Harare International Airport last Sunday might belong to a “vagrant” who sneaked into the aeroplane when it landed at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, sources close to the probe revealed yesterday.
The plane, belonging to United States-based Western Global Airlines and headed for Durban, South Africa, was impounded by authorities as police sought to crack the puzzle.
Sources yesterday said they were still making frantic efforts to trace the nationality of the unidentified person and the countries and airports where the plane landed before it stopped for refuelling in Zimbabwe.
Chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said investigations were still in progress.
“Investigations are still in progress with our officers still on the ground and there is nothing new yet,” she said.
Although the details were still sketchy, the sources said they believed that the person could have been a vagrant, given the state of the clothes he was wearing.
“He was wearing a pair of trousers that was tied with a rope (used as a belt) and some slippers. So we strongly believe that he could have sneaked into the plane. He is a black man and due to the state of the body, we could not estimate his age,” said a source.
“The body, which is in an advanced stage of decomposition, is still at Parirenyatwa Hospital mortuary. If we don’t ascertain his country of origin, he is likely to get a pauper’s burial.”
derick.khumalo